1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to storage media which store data in a predetermined format, to identifying data in the storage media which store the data in the predetermined format, and to reading data stored in the storage media.
2. Description of the Prior Art
With a major technological advantage over other storage media in dynamic range, SN ratio, capacity, and portability, compact disks (CD) have been widely used as storage media for storing music data (audio data). Music software is, in most cases, stored on music CD (CD-DA) for sale.
The data format stored in the music CD is regulated by one of the international standards. Although there are a few international standards, they are based on the same data format. That is, the contents of the stored audio data, normally referred to as the TOC (table of contents), are written to the read-in area (the innermost track). The program area is provided outside the TOC to store audio data, etc. The program area is physically divided by tracks, and the TOC data refer to the total performance time, total number of the music pieces, the performance time of each music piece, etc. Audio data of two channels (L and R) is written to each track in frame units. Data of 1 frame consists of a frame synchronization signal, a sub-code, audio data, a parity bit, etc.
The sub-code area consists of 8 bits, that is, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, and W. The P and Q bits of the area store the control data for the program functions such as detecting the start of each music piece, indicating the performance time, playing music in a predetermined order. Although the audio data cannot be directly read from the music CD, the TOC data and the sub-code area data can be successfully read.
Normally, the music CDs only store the control data for use in reading audio data to play only music. Therefore, the music CDs are commonly used to only play the stored music and do not serve sufficiently when the user wants to learn the stored music because the user has to be provided with a memo of the words. The user also has to obtain from magazines or other information sources the information about the music stored on the music CD.
It seems to be indispensable for the music CDs to be designed to remove this inconvenience, further to allow the user to listen to the specified portion of the performance of the music, or to repeatedly listen to the specified portion of the performance.
The problems with the music CDs are also those with other CDs such as CD-Gs and the storage media providing various formats of data.
On the other hand, CDs are used as read-only memory (CD-ROM). Since the CD-ROM also has the above described advantage, it is widely utilized as the storage media for storing programs and data. Therefore, a CD-ROM drive (CD playback device) is incorporated into a desk-top personal computer as a standard component these days. With an increasing popularity of multimedia, a number of computers are originally equipped with sound sources.
The computers equipped with sound sources and CD playback devices are normally designed to play back music DCs. The music CDs are very popular music media used by people of all ages and cover various categories and a large number of music pieces in each category. Therefore, adding a function of multimedia as an element of amusement to the popularly used music CDs will ensure the strong upturn of the popularity and sales of the music CDs, thereby greatly contributing to enlarging the music market. The users have expected the functions to be easily added to the existing functions.
The above explanation has concentrated on the CDs because they are very popular storage media at present. If storage media other than the CDs, such as mini-disks (MDs), become popular in the market, then the similar request will be issued to the MDs.
The first object of the present invention is to provide storage media which store audio data as user-oriented high-amusement media.
The second object of the present invention is to provide a method and a device for playing back a storage medium extended in its usage format by providing added information about the contents of the storage medium when playing back the storage medium containing data in a certain format.
The storage media according to the present invention store added information corresponding to music CDs as database. The storage media include CD-ROM, MDs, magnetic disks, and optical magnetic disks. Reading the added information in the storage media allows the user to be provided with various information about the music CDs.
The usage of the storage media is to store data stored on one of the first and second storage media on the third storage medium, to read the data stored on the other storage medium, and to read the data stored on the third storage medium. For example, if the first and second storage media are the same type, then the data on one storage medium is stored on the third storage medium of a different type, the data stored on the other storage medium is read, and the data stored on the third storage medium is read.
Thus, the data stored on the storage media can be used in an extended usage format to provide the user with another element of amusement. As a result, the storage media can be provided for the user as attractive amusement.
According to the automatic storage medium identifying method of the present invention, predetermined information is read from the storage medium, the read information is compared with predetermined storage medium data identification information, and the storage medium data is identified according to the comparison result.
The automatic storage medium identifying device according to the present invention consists of a reading unit for reading predetermined information from a storage medium; a comparing unit for comparing the predetermined information read by the reading unit with the storage medium identification information stored on the predetermined storage unit; and an identifying unit for identifying the difference in contents of the stored data according to the comparison result.
The automatic storage medium identifying device according to the present invention consists of a first reading unit for reading predetermined information stored in a predetermined data format on the storage medium; a second reading unit for reading identification information from a storage unit storing storage medium identification information; and an identifying unit for comparing the predetermined information read from the storage medium by the first reading unit with the storage medium identification information read by the second reading unit to identify a storage medium storing different data.
In the above described automatic storage medium identifying device, the predetermined data format stored on a storage medium should be sound data. When the storage medium is a music CD, the first reading unit reads the table-of-contents (TOC) data in the read-in area of the music CD. The identifying unit obtains from the TOC data read by the first reading unit at least the total performance time, total number of music pieces, and performance time of each music piece. Then, it sequentially compares the data with the identification information read from the storage medium by the second reading unit, and identifies the storage medium.
According to the automatic music CD identifying method of the present invention, the TOC data is read from the read-in area of the music CD storing sound data, the information contained in the read TOC data is sequentially compared with the identification information in each music CD, and the music CD, from which the TOC data is read, is identified according to the comparison result.
The information obtained from the TOC data used in the comparison should is at least one of the total performance time, total number of music pieces, and performance time of each music piece.
According to the playback method of the present invention, the information from the read data is displayed in synchronism with the reproduction of the data stored on the storage medium.
In this playback method, the storage medium is a music CD, and the words should be displayed on the screen during the playback of the music CD. It is also preferable that the words and the translation (if the words are written in a foreign language) are displayed on the screen during the reproduction of the sound data.
The storage medium playback device according to the present invention consists of a reading unit for reading sound data from the first storage medium; a control unit for reading added information for the sound data from a second storage medium and writing the added information to a third storage medium; a sound reproducing unit for reproducing the sound data read by the first reading unit; and an added information display unit for displaying the added information read from the third storage medium.
With the above described configuration, for example, it is preferable that the first storage medium is a music CD, the second storage medium is a CD-ROM, and the third storage medium is an auxiliary storage device. The control unit should be designed to write, when the reading unit reads the added information from the second storage medium, the read added information to the third storage medium and store on the third storage medium the database with the written added information stored as one unit.
The storage medium playback device consists of a first reading unit for reading data stored on a storage medium; a second reading unit for reading added information from a storage unit storing added information for the data stored on the storage medium; a reproducing unit for reproducing the data read by the first reading unit; a display unit for displaying the added information of the data read by the second reading unit; and a control unit for synchronize the reproduction of the data from the reproducing unit with the display of the added information for the reproduced data.
In the above described storage medium playback device, the storage medium should be a music CD. Using a music CD as a storage medium, the control unit should control the display unit such that the words can be displayed in synchronism with the data being reproduced by the reproducing unit. The control unit should control the display unit such that the unit can display the words of the music together with the translation, if the words are written in a foreign language, when the sound data are reproduced by the reproducing unit. Furthermore, the storage medium should store as a database the added information corresponding to the stored data for each of a plurality of storage media containing different stored data.
The storage medium playback device according to the present invention consists of a first reading unit for reading data stored on a storage medium; a second reading unit for reading added information from a storage unit storing added information for the data stored on the storage medium; a reproducing unit for reproducing the data read by the first reading unit; a display unit for displaying the added information of the data read by the second reading unit; a control unit for synchronize the reproduction of the data from the reproducing unit with the display of the added information for the reproduced data; a specifying unit for specifying any added information displayed on the display unit; and a second control unit for reading, through the first reading unit, the data corresponding to the added information specified by the specifying unit from the storage medium, and for reproducing the data through the reproducing unit.
The storage medium playback device according to the present invention consists of a first reading unit for reading data stored on a storage medium; a second reading unit for reading added information from a storage unit storing added information for the data stored on the storage medium; a reproducing unit for reproducing the data read by the first reading unit; a display unit for displaying the added information of the data read by the second reading unit; a specifying unit for specifying any added information displayed on the display unit; a third reading unit for reading the data corresponding to the added information specified by the specifying unit from the storage medium; and a second reproducing unit for reproducing the data read by the third reading unit.
The storage medium playback device according to the present invention consists of a first reading unit for reading data stored on a storage medium; a second reading unit for reading added information from a storage unit storing added information for the data stored on the storage medium; a reproducing unit for reproducing the data read by the first reading unit; a display unit for displaying the added information of the data read by the second reading unit; a control unit for synchronize the reproduction of the data from the reproducing unit with the display of the added information for the reproduced data; a specifying unit for specifying any added information displayed on the display unit; a third reading unit for reading the data corresponding to the added information specified by the specifying unit from the storage medium; and a second reproducing unit for reproducing the data read by the third reading unit.
The automatic storage medium identifying device according to the present invention consists of a first reading unit for reading predetermined information from a storage medium; a comparing unit for sequentially comparing the predetermined information read by the first reading unit with the storage medium identification information prepared for each type of data contents and stored on a first storage unit; an identifying unit for identifying the difference in contents of the stored data according to the comparison result; a second reading unit for reading from the storage medium the data stored on the storage medium and identified by the identifying unit; a third reading unit for reading added information from a second storage unit storing the added information for the data stored on the storage medium; a data reproducing unit for reproducing the data read by the second reading unit; a display unit for displaying the added information for the data read by the third reading unit; and a control unit for synchronize the reproduction of the data from the reproducing unit with the display of the added information for the reproduced data.